Menu Plan Monday - April 3 - 9

Can you believe that I've actually finished our menu for the week already? I have a lot to do in the next couple of days so I'm posting this now before I get busy and can't find the time to do it.

I managed to follow most of the menu last week, although I did switch out a couple of meals.

This week we're having: 

Sunday - *new* southwestern pasta & cheese & salad

Monday - hubby's birthday dinner - we're grilling steaks

Tuesday - *new* grilled Asian pork burgers, grilled veggies, & French fries - we will have dessert at McD's for my daughter's school fundraiser. I'll be working there for the school.

Wednesday - beef barley vegetable soup & egg salad sandwiches (hubby requested egg salad)

Thursday - *new* crockpot chuck roast sandwiches, 3 cheese mashed potatoes and stuffing. (I'm ending up with a super busy day. We are catering dinner at the elem. school for the teacher's parent conferences. I have to be there for delivery and clean up. In between, I will need to go to the middle school to train for proctoring for the EOGs and then after clean up of the food, my son has a soccer game. What a long night)

Friday - *new* Pizza Cordon Bleu and salad

Saturday - open right now

Menu Plan Monday

If you're checking out my menu plan, stop by and say "hi!" I love to talk!!

Asian Glazed Chicken Thighs

I found this wonderful recipe for Chinese chicken wings Wings on the blog Easy to be Gluten Free. Although we are not a gluten free family, there are many wonderful recipes on her blog that everyone can enjoy.

I decided to use the sauce portion of her recipe on the boneless chicken thighs that I had planned on making for dinner. I parboiled the chicken for 10 minutes and then broiled it in the oven for the remaining cooking time. I would've grilled it but my husband just cleaned the grill and he was not happy with the idea of me using a sugary glaze on it tonight. The next time I will grill it because I think that the caramelizing of the sauce will give it one more layer of flavor to enjoy!

My kids and husband raved about this dish. It's easy to make and definitely a keeper!

Asian Glazed Chicken Thighs

1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. soy sauce
1 tsp. five spice powder
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. onion powder
2-3 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs

(I doubled the sauce recipe)

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Add chicken thighs to a large pot. Cover with water. Bring to a boil and then turn down to medium-high to cook for 10 minutes. Drain.

In a large bowl combine sauce ingredients. Toss the chicken thighs with the sauce mixture.

Place thighs on a foil lined cookie sheet. Pour any remaining sauce over the wings.

Broil until cooked through - about 8 minutes, turning and brushing every 3 minutes with the sauce.

Quick & Easy Strawberry Shortcake

I ran into Aldi a couple of days ago to pick up a couple of things. They were having a sale on strawberries - large containers for .99. Great deal! I picked up 3 boxes with bright, juicy berries. For this time of year, these strawberries were surprisingly sweet. Still, I cleaned them, put them into a container and dumped some Splenda on them. There are foods that we like the taste of Splenda on better than sugar. They sat on the kitchen table for a couple of hours after dinner.

I had some biscuit mix in the cupboard so I whipped up some shortcakes to go along with the strawberries for an easy dessert.

Not a fancy recipe but it sure makes a pretty dessert.

Quick & Easy Strawberry Shortcake

strawberries, cleaned and sliced
sugar or Splenda for topping strawberries

Recipe from the back of the biscuit mix box:

2 c. baking mix
3 tbsp. Splenda
3 tbsp. margarine, melted
1/3 c. milk - I used 2/3 c.

Top strawberries with sugar or Splenda. If your berries aren't really juicy, sprinkle them with a little water, lemon or orange juice. Set aside to macerate.

For biscuits, stir together ingredients until well blended. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Sprinkle the tops with Splenda. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

To serve:

Split biscuits and cover with berries. Top with whipped cream, if desired.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

There must be more than 100 recipes floating around right now for chicken tortilla soup. Everyone likes to put their own spin on it. My husband and I recently ate lunch at McAlister's Deli. He had their chicken tortilla soup and loved it. He asked me if I could duplicate it at home. A challenge indeed.

After a long search, I found this copycat recipe from Food.com.

Was it a dead ringer for the soup that my husband had eaten? No. However, it was very good. With a few tweaks, we will have it again. The taste was close to McAlister's but *something* was missing. This soup was not as thick as the tortilla soup from that day. You also couldn't see the chunks of salsa or chicken in the restaurant soup. None the less, the whole family liked it.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

3 garlic cloves, minced
1 onions, chopped
3 tablespoons margarine
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 (14 ounce) cans chicken broth
4 cups half-and-half
1 (10 3/4 ounce) cans condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup salsa
1 (15 ounce) cans creamed corn
3 cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 1/2 tablespoons fajita seasoning mix
3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
16 ounces tortilla chips
8 ounces Monterrey jack cheese, shredded
1/8 cup green onions, chopped (I omitted)

In a large pot over medium heat, saute the garlic and onion in the butter or margarine for 5 minutes.

Add flour and stir well, cooking for 1 minute more.

Add the broth and half-and-half. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low. Add the soup, salsa, corn, chicken, cumin, fajita seasoning and 2 tablespoons cilantro. Stir and continue to heat for 15 minutes.

Crumble tortilla chips into individual bowls, add 1/2 ounce shredded cheese to each bowl and ladle in soup. Top each bowl with more crumbled chips, remaining 1/2 ounce cheese and remaining 1 tablespoon cilantro, few chopped green onions and serve.

Linking up to:

Tuesday at the Table
Mangia Monday
Melt in Your Mouth Monday

Johnny Marzetti

Have you heard of Johnny Marzetti before? It's a dish that we ate for school lunches back when I was in school.

Where did the name come from? According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette website, Johnny Marzetti is a casserole created in the 1920s by the owner of the Marzetti Restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. Who was Johnny Marzetti? According to the "American Century Cookbook" by Jean Anderson, Johnny Marzetti was the brother of the owner of the Marzetti Restaurant.

Casseroles steamrolled into the kitchen in the 1940s and have remained popular staples to this day. The Johnny Marzetti casserole was popular in the mid '50s and early '60s. It consists of meat, pasta and either tomato sauce, soup or juice.

My husband and I were talking about school lunches and comparing them to what our kids eat in school now. I decided to look up a recipe for Johnny Marzetti to see if I could duplicate the school's recipe. Did I duplicate it? No, not exactly. But the dish that I created was delicious. Like chili, it tastes even better warmed up as leftovers. The recipe that I remember had more of a spaghetti sauce sort of taste with no onion and peppers showing in it. Some say the original recipe contains cheese but I don't ever remember cheese in what I ate. There's also a controversy over whether or not it was made with egg noodles or elbow macaroni. It was always elbows for us.

This was a nice trip down memory lane.

Johnny Marzetti

1 pound ground chuck
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 teaspoon oil
1 large can tomatoes (29 ounces)
1 large can tomato juice
1 pound elbow macaroni, cooked
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Garlic salt, to taste

Brown meat, onion and green pepper in oil.

Drain, then add tomatoes, tomato juice and spices.

Add cooked macaroni to sauce. Simmer 10 minutes and serve.

Store any leftovers in a sealed container. It's even better the next day!